The U.K. has told its universities to end cooperation with a Chinese “research institute” that security services say exists to fund Chinese espionage capabilities.
MI5 published an Espionage Alert yesterday warning that the China General Technology Research Institute, or CGTRI, also known as the China Academy of General Technology, or CAGT, has very strong ties to the Ministry of State Security, China’s civilian intelligence and security service. The alert further discloses that the “primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage.”
More than 100 U.K.-linked academics have contributed to projects funded by MSS via CGTRI, according to MI5. U.K.-China Transparency, an organization focused on information about Sino-British ties, published a list of 15 British universities it believes “should assess their past and potentially ongoing links to CGTRI with special urgency,” saying it had mapped “a network of researchers, institutions and grants” that appear to be linked to the Chinese body.
The U.K. security minister, Dan Jarvis, is quoted in The Guardian as saying he had “written to all university vice-chancellors to ensure they support their staff to end all arrangements with this company.” The MI5 alert exposes “Chinese intelligence’s attempts to obtain and use our academics’ expertise and research,” Jarvis posted on X, adding: “This activity undermines our national security.”
“I’m sick and tired of academics telling me that academic research rises above geopolitics and national security concerns about the Chinese Communist Party,” his Conservative counterpart Alicia Kearns wrote in her own post. “This delusion is not unique to academia, but be clear, you are making yourself complicit in making our country less safe.”
It certainly seems like the U.K. is putting its academics on notice that they need to sever any relationships with CGTRI.
The alert “puts the fact that CGTRI has very strong ties to MSS in the public domain,” MI5 said in an accompanying explainer. The alert points out that under the National Security Act of 2023 an offence is committed if a person knows or “ought reasonably to know [emphasis MI5’s] that their conduct is likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service in carrying out U.K.-related activities.”
“Any institution or individual continuing to conduct research ultimately funded by CGTRI following publication of this espionage alert should take their own independent legal advice,” the alert concludes.
The Central European Institute of Asian Studies published a review of British universities’ ties with China, conducted by Tau Yang from the China Strategic Risks Institute. It analyzed over 1,500 records of collaborations between British universities and their Chinese counterparts, as well as other Chinese entities. Some 32.1% involved Chinese entities with links to the Chinese military.
British universities have also partnered with seven of the 12 largest Chinese defense conglomerates, the review stated. These collaborations often feature “opaque structures” and “commercial aliases.” It identified at least eight collaborations between the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and British universities. “Five of these partnerships were initially identified under alternative names or through affiliated research entities.”
The review recommended that British universities should “design strict internal safeguards for research collaborations with Chinese entities and raise awareness among key stakeholders.”
“The revelation about cooperation with CGTRI is merely a tip of the iceberg that is academic cooperation between U.K. and China,” said Matej Simalcik, the Central European Institute of Asian Studies’ executive director.
Simalcik said that cooperation in specific science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields is actually more exposed to the Chinese military than the average figure of 32.1% in the review. “The share of partnerships with PLA-linked entities rises up to 55% [in STEM], and for the Russell Group — leading public research universities — the share goes as high as 70% of partnerships.”
It appears that cooperation with CGTRI involved provision of funding to British researchers, Simalcik said. “We must also ask the question why obtaining funding from an obscure Chinese entity looked so desirable to these scientists, and how can we improve funding access in our open academic systems so that researchers don’t need to rely on this kind of cooperation.”
All of this comes after the U.K. government approved a new Chinese “mega embassy” on the Royal Mint site in central London, despite fears of increased espionage . “You all are about to let 200 Chinese diplomats come occupy a new embassy — that’s nuts,” former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told leading British political podcast The Rest Is Politics last year. “They will all be elements of the Chinese national security apparatus as narrowly understood.”
“The accusations made by the UK intelligence agency against the relevant Chinese entity are imaginary and purely fabricated,” the Chinese embassy in London said in a statement.
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